Milan's Furniture Fair 2011: new tendencies and trends

Last week, from the 12th to the 17th of April, the city of Milan hosted one of the most famous furniture fair in the world: Milan's furniture fair (or Milano design week), celebrating with this edition its 50th birthday!

Milan's Salone del Mobile represents the major event for the furniture field and for Italian design, gathering in one single place new tendencies, trends and innovations.

Salone is composed by 7 different pavilions that divide furniture into different styles (from classic pavillons to contemporary furniture pavillons) or purposes (from office furniture to the lighting area), for a total of 2500 firms. All pavilions were characterized by highly innovative stands, showing all the best in terms of creativity, originality and quality.

And that's the reason why more than 290.000 visitors among field operators or simple customers decided to attend to this great event, living at the same time this particular atmosphere of pure design.

Could we miss it? Not for the world! Saturday our staff went to enjoy a long day at the fair in order to view, touch and try the very best that Italian design can nowadays offer in terms of products - from the single piece to the whole combination - and of style - from classic to contemporary design. At the same time we took notes about all the new tendencies that are going to wait for us in the near future.

Italia 150 chair deserves a special mention: first of all because it's a design chair born to celebrate the 150 anniversary of Italian unification, and second of all because its the symbol of the happy marriage between past and future.

After Milano 2015 chair, created for Milan's 2015 Universal Exposition, that's another example of a chair born to celebrate an important event. Italia 150 is completely realized in polycarbonate available in different colours: transparent, smoked, bronze, bottle green. The version with red, white and green colours (reminding the Italian flag), together with dove grey, is realized in thick glossy nylon.

Italia 150 chair modernizes the style and lines of the chairs used in the past, matching the importance of our recent history with modern materials and looks.

Comfort, design and functionality: the perfect image of Made in Italy design!

And what about colours? Which are this season's most trendy colours? The watchword is just one: dove grey, dove grey and again dove grey!

This year, Milan's fair was completely invaded by this colour, together with all light coffee nuances: sand, mud, ivory... from wall systems, playing with a light and dark colour combinations, to bedroom furniture, tables and chairs.

A great attention has also been given to table top materials: together with classic wooden and glass tops, we now have a great selection of new finishes, able to match the handiness of an everyday use with the elegance and charm that a living room table should have.

Edro extensible table with resistant top is a great example; available in a composite material made with iron parts, it's particularly resistant to deformations and scratches, perfect if you have children and want to avoid delicate finishes.

Another material that will soon be available is gres porcelain, the natural development of the concrete finished top you can already see on Baron extensible table by Calligaris.

These are just some of 2011 new products and finishes you will soon find on our website, stay tuned for more to come!

Outdoor furniture: outdoor sofas

The sun has finally come out and the days are getting longer and hotter (at least here in Italy!), this week our trip in the world of outdoor and garden furniture has reached another important destination.

We've already talked about tables and chairs, dreaming about our great summer parties, but I think we shouldn't forget the pleasure of resting and relaxing under the sun: and for this reason today we talk about outdoor sofas.

Outdoor sofas bring the sitting room outside, to your garden or terrace, creating at the same time a comfortable, muffled, cosy environment ready to welcome you when you need to ease up a little and relax under the stars, at the shadow of a tree or under a gazebo. A relaxing time that changes perspective, because it enjoys the fresh air of the evening giving relief to our minds and bodies.

A resting time that looks more natural, away from indoor technological entertainments, from TVs, videogames, stereos, more connected with nature and its scents, its flavours, its sounds and silences. Or again, the beauty of relaxing directly overlooking an urban environment, that can sometimes treat us with breathtaking views.

But don't think outdoor sofas are necessary different from indoor ones: it's true, materials must be different, as they have to resist to weather conditions, and make the cleaning easier, but the aesthetics of some sofas, designed for gardens and outdoor spaces in general, can be exactly the same as the indoor sofas. They can create a strange optical illusion making us wondering ... "What is my sofa doing in the garden??".

Funny, yes, but also nice, pleasant, reassuring, because, as a matter of fact, it extends our homes boundaries beyond the walls, beyond limited spaces.

For example, have a look at Asami Outdoor waterproof sofa: doesn't it look like an indoor sofa just placed outside? Softness and elasticity are both guaranteed by a great shape and an extreme comfort, but also the resistance to weather conditions is assured by the materials used; methacrylate for the structure and waterproof fabric or eco-leather for the cushions.

Also Luxor outdoor sofa and amrchair with cushions have a design that reminds indoor sitting rooms, and in this case too the acrylic fabric cushions and the aluminium structure covered in wicker guarantee resistance to atmospheric agents.

Geo outdoor two seats sofa and armchair are more devoted to an outdoor aesthetics, with very pleasant round shapes. The aluminium structure covered in synthetic rattan ensures high resistance through time, while the acrylic fabric of the cushions can be easily cleaned.